The FDA approves Boehringer Ingelheim’s MICARDIS® (telmisartan) as the first treatment in its class to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes in patients at high cardiovascular risk who are unable to take ACE inhibitors. This new indication is based on The ONTARGET Trial results which showed that MICARDIS® may prevent one in five serious CV events or death from cardiac causes.

The TRANSCEND study authored by Dr Salim Yusuf, Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University, Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) concluded that the angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) telmisartan, when added to other reliable therapies,  proves to be of an additional advantage in treating patients who are unable to tolerate the standard treatment of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. The researchers found in a trial that mean blood pressure was lower in the patients given a dose of telmisartan. Major adverse cardiovascular events such as death, heart attack or stroke were 13% less likely in telmisartan patients as against the placebo group.